Kagawa · KotohiraNo.633★★Open in map →

Kotohira Monzen-machi

— The shop town below the Kotohira-gu steps

localOff the trail — and worth it

The approach town in front of Kotohira-gu, where souvenir shops, inns and udon houses line the lower flights of the shrine's stone stairway. Here the climb and the shopping street are the same road.

FromTakamatsu Station
~35 minJR limited express, then a walk
Get off atKotohira Station (JR Dosan Line)
On foot
Kotohira Monzen-machi

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Kotohira-gu is one of Shikoku's most visited shrines, so this street is not an undiscovered one. The difference is where you put your attention. Most itineraries treat the shops as an obstacle between the station and the steps, when the shopfronts, the inns and the almost level lower flights are the part of the visit you can actually linger in.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

The Takatoro lanterna tall wooden lantern by the Kotoden station, once a mark for ships offshore
Ichinohashi Parka small park on the way in, used for the twice-monthly morning market
Kotohira Public Halla prewar assembly hall on the approach, registered as a cultural property
The approach streetsouvenir shops, udon houses and old inns lining the lower flights
Ichinozakathe first real slope, where the street tips upward into stairs

How to actually get there

Takamatsu Station → Kotohira Station (JR Dosan Line; limited express or local, sometimes changing at Tadotsu).
Kotohira Station → the Takatoro lantern and the Kotoden station (walk south-west into the town).
Follow the street past Ichinohashi Park and the town hall to the foot of the stairway.
Climb through the shops as far as Ichinozaka, where the street turns into a slope, then come back down for udon.

JR Dosan Line from Takamatsu: Takamatsu Station to Kotohira Station runs on the Shimanto limited express, or roughly an hour on local trains, sometimes with a change at Tadotsu. Kotohira Station is an old wooden station building on the east side of town, and the approach runs south-west from there towards the hill.
Back from Kotohira Station: Trains run towards Takamatsu through the day and into the evening. The Nanpu limited express goes the other way to Okayama over the Seto-Ohashi Bridge, so Kotohira works as a stop on the way in or out of Shikoku. Confirm the last departure before sitting down for a late bowl of udon.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

Kotohira grew as the town in front of a shrine. Pilgrims came from across the country to worship Konpira, the god of seafarers, and the road that carried them filled with inns, teahouses and makers of sweets to take home. That road is still the way up: the stairway to the shrine starts from the middle of it, with shopfronts on both sides of the lower flights, and the selling only stops at the gate above. The local specialities are still made along it — kyumen buns, kamiyo-ame candy, oiri puffed rice, bone-in chicken and Sanuki udon.

How to enjoy it

The shrine reckons about thirty minutes one way for the climb, so the descent is where the street gets its time back — most people shop on the way down rather than up. A morning market fills Ichinohashi Park on the second and fourth Sunday of each month, with produce, baking and a secondhand book stall.

Background & history

Konpira was worshipped as a protector of seafarers, and the faith travelled with the coastal trade until the shrine drew visitors from the whole country. In the Edo period a journey here ranked second only to the pilgrimage to Ise, and households who could not make the trip sent a dog in their place, a custom remembered as the konpira-inu. That traffic paid for the inns, teahouses and confectioners below the steps, and the shopfronts on the lower flights are what is left of it.

Before you go

Cash: Walking the street costs nothing. The shops, inns and udon counters each set their own prices, and the smaller places along the steps are not all set up for cards.
Good to know: There is no shelter over the steps, so rain and midsummer heat are felt directly, and worn stone is slippery when wet. Shops on the lower flights keep daytime hours and shutter earlier than a city street would.
Another way: Kotoden's Kotohira Line runs from Takamatsu-Chikko to Kotoden-Kotohira in about an hour, with two trains an hour. That station stands beside the Takatoro lantern, at the bottom of the same walk.
After you get off: From Kotohira Station it is about a ten-minute walk south-west to the foot of the approach. The shops begin before the steps do, so the climb starts almost without notice.